User blog:Brady26/Turning the Sands
As the group unites in the maze surrounding Xonthal's Tower, they delve deeper into the secrets of the old wizard's home, fighting against the Cult of the Dragon desperate to keep the Blue Dragon Mask away from them. The Difference Finishing a meeting with the Unbidden, Kadmos let mind to drift freely into the Skein, where he allowed himself to be found by Vigil, the celestial entity examining a memory of an interaction between his charge and the Empress of the Quel'Doran Empire. He noticed that she did not speak, and thus he could not discern her true intentions, comparing her to a weapon that Kadmos could use against the Cult. Wishing to teach Kadmos further, Vigil showed him a vision of a conflict between the forces of Tiamat and Bahamut, an apocalyptic battle erupting around them in the Skein. In the distance Vigil pointed to three figures locked in combat, the Queen of Dragons and the Platinum Dragon being kept at bay by another entity, and it was not until the two gods united in their purpose to defeat them that they were able to overcome it. Vigil asked Kadmos whether he knew the difference between good and evil, and whether he could sense their presence. Kadmos believed he did, and Vigil granted him a further fragment of his power so that he could aid him in seeing the truth. A Gift for Darion As Darion sat in his room writing letters to Larion, Barion and people that would never read them, tossing the letters around the room as he grew frustrated, a man came in to clean up, getting very close to him before drawing a blade and stabbing the table Darion sat at, a note pierced through on the blade. The man revealed themselves to be Jamna Gleamsilver, who invited him to read the note which was written by someone claiming to be a member of the Hallowed Assault wishing to share information with the Cult of the Dragon. After trying to make a deal with Jamna, the gnome offered to take him to this traitor, using her hat of disguise to travel through the Cathedral and the city in many different guises. She led him to an abandoned barn outside the city, into which she entered a hatch which led to a corridor below with many doors leading off it. Glancing into some of the rooms Darion saw crates and empty cell rooms, at the end of the corridor however was a room with the traitor tied up, Lady Nightshade, and Ugmar, the half-orc from Greenest. Removing the sack from the tied up figures head, Darion found himself face to face with Sigmund, one of his recruits from Greenest. The two began to question one another, Darion preventing him from speaking any lies through his divine power, occasionally Lady Nightshade chimed in with her own questions for Darion, who revealed that he had given the Black Dragon Mask to Talis the White. Darion managed to reveal what Sigmund's fears were, that Darion was a monster that was planning to use them for his own ends rather than continuing the legacy of the Hallowed Assault. Darion managed to convince him otherwise, that his intentions were purely good and that if he just had patience then he would no longer have to fear anyone hurting him or his family. The Small Ring giving Sigmund over to Darion, the two walked the city of Grostere, Darion talking to the wayward acolyte and entrusting him with 700 gold pieces to return to Greenest Keep with. Meeting up with Kadmos, they set off after their companions who had departed the previous day, both now a little more firm in their resolve. Lost but Found Meanwhile, as the group once again were tested by the machinations of Xonthal's Maze, overcoming the strange tea drinking entity in the pagoda, they once again returned to the sundial, this time however they found Darion and Kadmos also examining the strange device. The group began to relay what they had learned, the paths they had chosen and the many challenges they faced, such as a pool of chitinous creatures, a stone throwing game against cyclopes, carnivorous plants, and strange men offering tea. After each challenge they had found a gem that hummed when they left the challenge and they returned to the sundial where it remained unchanged. Setting off down another path, the now larger group found a gallery of statues surrounding a red carpet, the ornate plate mail guards standing sentinel over an empty courtroom. Seeing the carpet as potentially valuable, Rack dove on it and began to attempt to roll it up, the action seeming to be the wrong step in overcoming the obstacle as the nearby statues sprang to life, soon all of them lunged forward to engage the disrespectful interlopers. Defeating the statues, one of them dropped a bloodstone as it fell apart, the gem humming to allow them to return once more to the sundial. Next the group again seemed to choose the wrong path, encountering a proper maze, with different paths and routes, two gorgons, iron bulls that breath green smoke from their nostrils charging at them through the hedges. Slaying the beasts, whose bodies dissolved as their acidic internal gases broke their iron forms apart. Rack dashed around the maze but found no exit, and when once again two gorgons charged out at them, they feared they might be stuck. It was not until when one of the creatures unleashed a torrent of green gas at Lukas, that the young man noticed a droplet form from the beast's nostrils, a piece of tear drop shaped glass that landed at the beast's stomping feet. Darting in to grab it, the gem revealed an exit nearby that the group fled down, the beasts attempting to pursue, but the maze once again brought them to the safety of the sundial. There they went down the past that Rack had gone alone before, but this time it brought them to a sundial that showed different shadows, picking a new path based off those they returned to the sundial now showing an X shape that zoomed in on the sundial itself. Deciding that it mean to go "down", they travelled south. They passed into an open area similar to the pool where they fought the chuul, but this pool was red and held the gem suspended in its liquid. Taking a seat Khez watched as Lukas experimented with the liquid, poking it with his dagger, causing him to get flashes of memories and he began to think about what his father would think of this. Attempting to step on the liquid, Rack felt a searing pain as he saw his master's face in the liquid, a hand reaching out to him, and Rack soon found he could not remember some techniques his master had taught to him. Deciding that this was too strange he set off into the exit on the other side, as Darion struck at the liquid, he too getting flashes of memories but suffering no ill effects beyond that. Departing, Kadmos glanced back and focused his divine eye, wreathing the liquid in divine fire, causing the ooze creature that had remained still this whole time to rear up in agony and began to attack. As they fought the beast, it spawned painful memories for each of the group as they fought it, Lukas recognising it as an Ooblex, a beast that feeds off memories and uses them to lure its victims as appendages. With one great plume of fire, Rack immolated the oozing beast, burning the creature up and leaving it as a puddle of harmless slime. Resting by the sundial, the group pondered what the answer could be, Kadmos climbing atop the sundial which seemed to be the answer as he fell through the metal slab, Lukas seeking to follow as Darion argued against it as it was literally leaping into an unknown fate. Eventually however, everyone followed suit and they found the sundial now pointed in every direction. Deciding that they would try all routes, believing they had to collect all the gems, they found themselves in a well kept garden with a small cottage , leading up to it were four stepping stones, each marked with a number from one to four. Fighting past the gnome construct defences the group realised there was a sequence they were meant to step on the stones, and after some trial and error, as well as seeing themselves walking around in the garden outside they cracked the code and found the gem that led them back to the sundial. Taking another rest, Khez taking a seat on the ground and leaning against the hedge found himself falling into it as he lay back, Lukas leaping after him, and the others, once again with Darion reluctantly agreeing, following after. Finding themselves at the tower base, with the sundial and the village visible in a straight line behind them. Dedicated Levels In front of the tower was a teleportation circle, with a cultist body nearby, Lukas noticing that the wounds looked similar to those inflicted by the daggers Rack uses and that they clearly fell from a great height, looking up they saw a balcony overlooking the maze. Debating whether or not to try and scale the tower, the group took note of the stone tablet next to the teleportation circle, Lukas using the corpse of the cultist to touch the stone, though soon divining its purpose he abandoned the body. The stone tablet depicted runes and symbols that referred to rooms in the tower. Choosing one, they found themselves in a circular room, with cultists outside whispering to one another that they had spotted the group in the village and they were on their way. Deciding to go elsewhere, the group found themselves in a laboratory where the cult was working on parts of a dragon, Dragonsouls ordering their subordinates to attack the intruders. Defeating the cultists, though failing to prevent a Dragonsoul escaping, the group healed themselves as best they could and set off, pressing the teleport's keys and arriving in different rooms throughout the tower, clashing with cult forces as they travelled. The Key to Beyond Finding Jorgen Pawl, the group fought him and his guards on the balcony of the observatory room, Kadmos unleashing the full power of the bow gifted to the group long ago by the strange druid in the Rimecost. In the melee, Khez was knocked unconscious, but Kadmos, channelling the power granted to him by Vigil, restore him back to consciousness. Lukas managed to knock out Jorgen Pawl, the group finishing off the last of the guards. Using his divine power, Darion forced Pawl awake, Lukas having bound his arms in rope, Rack taking his clothes off, the three of them beginning an interrogation, though they failed to get any useful information from him, mostly succeeding in revealing their ignorance of the entire situation. Kadmos and Khez took some time to recover as best they could, occasionally chipping in to fill gaps in the three interrogators' knowledge. Deciding Pawl was of no immediate use, they knocked him out once again and lashed his half naked form to Darion's back, Lukas reluctantly donning his armour. On him they found an hourglass that Rack took believing it to be a magic item but as none of them had any knowledge of the arcane, nor were they willing to devote any amount of time to understanding the device, they did not know its function. As they approached the teleportation chamber however they noticed the hourglass shaped rune and activated it, taking them to another part of the tower, or perhaps somewhere completely different. The Path that Led Back Here In this new dungeon, they saw a bloody trail leading down a corridor, following it they found a room with two earth elementals and fire elemental standing guard, a chest sitting on a table in the corner attracting their attention. Believing that the elementals would only attack if they entered the room, Kadmos used his magic to conjure an unseen servant to pluck the chest from the table and bring it to them, within they found three scrolls, using at least two of which would allow them to bypass the elementals. Beyond this room they found a laboratory with whirlwind in its centre, seeing no immediate threat they left it, as the scroll that would allow them to pass the elementals would only last a few more minutes. Finding a corridor suspended in the void, surrounded by strange constellations and unfamiliar stars, the group found themselves narrowly missing a shower of comets that swished over their heads. As they passed what seemed like the midpoint, Lukas spied a sliver of a door frame, going inside they found a library filled with books and instruments. On the table Kadmos found a map to unfamiliar stars which he picked up and started comparing to the stars outside. Taking a quick look around, Lukas realised that two of the bookcases could be pulled back by using the stair ladder, revealing a desk with a quill, though as he entered the room a number of books began to shred themselves apart leaving fragments of paper across the room. Opening the next room Lukas found a large scrying orb of some kind with a delicate lever that allowed one to control it, not even Rack's light touch was able to manoeuvre it to find anything beyond burning rocks. Continuing down the corridor, they turned left, finding the bloody trail leading to a dead man clutching a blue dragon mask and a bloody ornate dagger, a pair of larger hourglasses sitting in the room slowly draining their sands upward in defiance of gravity. As Rack approached to take the mask and slipped the dagger into the pockets of his new fancy clothes, a voice spoke out to them. The voice claimed it listened to the man, Iskander, as he died, saying that he believed he was right even as he lay dying. Asking who the voice belonged to, the answer was a mix of greetings used by members of the Unbidden which Kadmos recognised and did his best to give the correct replies to. The voice claimed to be no friend of the cult, and that it was due to them that they were trapped in this tower, but explained that whoever held the hourglass had the key to open Xonthal's Tower and it was that person who could free them from this imprisonment. As there was no one in the room to see, Kadmos could not rely on his gifts from Vigil to discern the truth, but Rack, who held the hourglass handed it to Kadmos, letting him make the decision. Darion, fearful of any number of things, including half remembered things Barion told them in Oyaviggaton, adamantly opposed freeing this person. Deciding not to take the risk, Kadmos promised to return to the voice, privately wishing to take council with Vigil on the issue, the voice did not reply and the group left the room and the corpse of the man that gave his life to get them the information that led to them retrieving the blue dragon mask. Taking a quick glance on their way out the group found a storeroom of magical reagents, a quick glance looking like wizard might have been able to restock their supplies in such a room, though as none of them utilised such materials they left it undisturbed. With only a few moments left on the protection remaining granted by the scroll, the group left the last corridor unexplored and headed back to the teleportation pad, Rack putting the blue dragon mask on to attune himself to whatever benefits it offered. Touching the rune that took them back to the entrance of the tower within the maze, the group heard screams and shouting, punctuated by a loud roar. In an echo of their first fights together in Greenest, a blue dragon circled over the town of Xonthal's Tower, its booming voice echoing out across the maze to them. The beast demanded the return of the mask, threatening to kill ever last person in the town if they refuse. Category:Blog posts